[NHCOLL-L:4351] RE: Preparing skeletons of small birds

[Moore, Simon]

Hi Bob,
 
Just one thing - don't boil as it will distort any cartilaginous bits
such as the rib extensions.  I bring my 'bird soup' up to about 80 deg.
C and leave it to simmer until the flesh turns a reddish colour, then it
just falls off the bones.  I also use what we call 'fleshing crystals'
to catalyse the reaction.  Will the birds still have their skull
occiputs intact - I know many preparators and taxidermists who normally
remove this part of the skull?
 
This type of damage due to Health and Safety issues, is unfortunately
all too typical of the present with smaller staffing levels and no
permissible weapons in our chemical arsenal!
 

With all good wishes, 
Simon Moore, MIScT, FLS, ACR, 
Senior Conservator of Natural Sciences. 
Hampshire County Council, 
Department of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs, 
Museums & Archives Service, 
Chilcomb House, Chilcomb Lane, 
Winchester SO23 8RD. UK. 
Internal  8 327 6737 
01962 826737 
http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum/biology 


 

________________________________

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Glotzhober
Sent: 11 June 2009 16:12
To: NH Collection List Server
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4349] Preparing skeletons of small birds



Last winter we discovered that some of our bird study skins which were
kept in 50-plus year-old wooden cabinets had been infested with cloths
moths. We quickly acted to freeze everything, clean the specimens and
salvage those we could. Fortunately, our oldest specimens and most
unique ones were preserved with arsenic, and were left totally alone. We
have been trying to obtain grants to update the last of the old wooden
cabinets, but were not "fast enough" with that work - and so "lost"
about 10% of our study skins. (Still working on the grants! It's not a
great climate economically for that.)

 

I am working now to minimize this past loss by converting as many of the
damaged study skins into skeletal preparations, hence saving the data
and as much of the specimens as we can. I've done lots of bone cleaning
of medium-sized mammals and birds and expect no problems preparing the
larger specimens. However, those damaged include a lot of warblers,
kinglets and other very small birds. I don't currently have access to a
dermestid colony and had been planning on slow boiling to remove flesh.
Can anyone advise me on this for very small birds - or should I work to
re-establish a dermestid colony? Years ago we had a dermestid colony,
but had trouble keeping it separated far enough from our collections
storage area so abandoned it. I look forward to any recommendations and
suggestions people can make.

 

Bob Glotzhober

 

====================

Robert C. Glotzhober             614/ 298-2054

Senior Curator, Natural History         bglotzhober at ohiohistory.org

Ohio Historical Society         Fax: 614/ 297-2546

1982 Velma Avenue

Columbus, Ohio  43211-2497

 

Visit the website of the Ohio Historical Society at:

  www.ohiohistory.org and check out our online collections catalog.

Visit the Ohio Odonata website at:
http://www.marietta.edu/~odonata/index.html

 

 

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